The Mahabalipuram cave temples in India are very mysterious and contain loads of ancient history in the form of carvings. I find myself visiting these structures again and again, for some strange reason. In one of the monuments, we can see the oldest depiction of
Bodhidharma, carved at least 1300 years ago.

Bodhidharma is a very mysterious
figure and has statues all over China and Japan and is considered the founder
of martial arts at the Shaolin temple. He is an iconic figure among Buddhist
monks. All ancient Chinese texts agree that he came from a foreign country, but
experts are not sure if he was from Iran or from India. This confusion exists because
Bodhidharma came from a kingdom called the Pallava Kingdom. There are 2
kingdoms which existed under the same name, one in Iran and another in India.

But this 1300 year old carving puts this confusion to rest, because it is
the oldest carving of Bodhidharma that has ever been found and is found at the
heart of the Pallava Kingdom in India which proves that he is in fact from India.

We can see that he
is wearing a long head dress that extends to his legs and is shown with a beard
and mustache, typical of Bodhidharma's depiction in China and Japan. However,
the most important feature is his extremely large eyes which are shown almost popping
out. The reason for this is because Bodhidharma did not have any eyelids. This
was his distinct feature. And we can see that Bodhidharma is shown holding a
long stick, which was the only thing that he ever carried around.

Other saints look distinctly different from Bodhidharma

If we look around in
this temple, this figure is sharply in contrast with all other figures in this
monument. All other saints are clean shaven and are shown with their palms
together. However, Bodhidharma is shown with a beard and mustache.

This is
definitely not a carving of a layman, because he is shown standing on top of a
temple tower, such a depiction is only given to people who are saints or kings.
And the beauty of this carving is that it shows
Bodhidharma when he was young, because he left India in his early twenties.

So, who was this
Bodhidharma, and why did he travel to China?A Chinese disciple of Bodhidharma, by the name of Tanlin, clearly
describes his origin in a book written around 550 A.D.He has written that Bodhidharma was a South Indian of the western region,
and was the third son of a great Indian king. Also, the author Tsutomu Kambe
mentions that Bodhidharma came from a city called (香至) Kang-zhi, which is actually
pronounced as Kanchi in India.The city of Kanchi was the capital of Pallava Kingdom, which is located
less than 50 miles from this carving.Bodhidharma's real name was Jayavarman, a prince of the Pallava
dynasty, who renounced his luxuries to become a monk.He then traveled to
China where he taught various specialties including meditation, martial arts
and medicine. Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section. Have a great day!

May be because the artists lived in that period /place were lacking in the engraving of Eye lids or may be it might carved after constructing the pillers/construction so that if any small thing goes wrong while carving they abandon the work.I will soon visit that place and will to research like praveen Mohan sir.